Shanola Hampton as Gabi Mosely in FOUND – Season 1 | ©2024 NBCUniversal/Fernando Decillis

NBC’s FOUND has its series finale airing on Thursday, May 15, with all episodes of its two seasons then available on Peacock. In the drama created by Nkechi Okoro (who also serves as the series showrunner), Shanola Hampton as Gabrielle “Gabi” Mosely and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Hugh Evans, aka “Sir,” have what is surely one of the most complicated relationships on episodic television.

Gabi now runs Mosely & Associates, or M&A, which specializes in finding people who are often overlooked when they are abducted or just go missing. Gabi’s friends and colleagues know that when she was a teen, she was kidnapped by one of her teachers, Evans/Sir, and held captive by him until she managed to escape.

What nobody else knows in FOUND Season 1 is that Gabi has now kidnapped Evans and has him chained up in her basement, where she coerces him into using his strategic expertise to help her solve cases.

By the start of Season 2, Evans/Sir has managed to get free of his captivity, and the secret is out along with him, much to the shock of Gabi’s circle. But instead of fleeing for parts unknown, Evans/Sir remains obsessed with Gabi and continues to assist her, albeit often trying to put himself in a position where he can make demands.

Hampton, originally from Long Island, NY, has previously been a regular on the U.S. version of SHAMELESS, MIAMI MEDICAL, and RELATED. Her feature film credits include THE HANGED MAN, YOU AGAIN, THINGS NEVER SAID, ALWAYS WORTHY, and DEADLY ILLUSIONS.

California native Gosselaar spent much of his adolescence starring in the teen comedy series SAVED BY THE BELL and its spinoffs, GOOD MORNING, MISS BLISS and SAVED BY THE BELL: THE COLLEGE YEARS. He then moved on to playing adult leads in NYPD BLUE (as a police detective), RAISING THE BAR and FRANKLIN & BASH (as lawyers), Fox’s PITCH (as a baseball coach), the vampire thriller THE PASSAGE, and the BLACK-ISH prequel spinoff MIXED-ISH (as the father of the little girl played as a grown-up on BLACK-ISH by Tracee Ellis Ross).

Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Sir in FOUND – Season 1 | ©2024 NBCUniversal/Fernando Decillis

During NBC/Universal’s day of presentations for the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour, Hampton and Gosselaar are on a Q&A panel together. Later, they join up for a one-on-two follow-up conversation at a party thrown by NBC/Universal for the event. This interview combines remarks from both discussions.

How do Hampton and Gosselaar feel about the changing power dynamic between their characters in FOUND Season 2?

Hampton replies, “It’s funny, because I don’t think I see it as a power shift. Even though he was in the basement, and it looked like I had all the power, it was very much a cat-and-mouse game. The only thing that’s changed in their game is there are no chains or bars between us, but the power in that dynamic goes back and forth, even in this season.”

“Yes,” Gosselaar concurs.

How did Gosselaar react when he first heard about Evans/Sir getting out of Gabi’s direct control?

There was little advance warning, Gosselaar reveals. “It was this dance that you have to trust NK [Okoro’s nickname] and her team to provide us with the floor to be creative in, but also to feel that it’s not forced. Every script that we got, I remember I kept calling [Okoro], saying, ‘How can we continue this trajectory?’ because it continues to rise right from the start of the second season.

FOUND – Key Art | ©2024 NBCUniversal

“So, there is this level of trust that you have to give to your showrunner and the team. Sometimes it works. It’s a gamble, and sometimes it doesn’t. But I’m very pleased, very excited for our fans and our audience to watch the second season, because everything that we built up in the first season, there is … a payoff if you’ve put the time into our show.”

Gosselaar continues, “A lot of times, I feel like shows find themselves in a position where it’s hard to maintain, but I feel like we’ve maintained and excelled from where we were last season. It just opens up so much more of the story for the [other] characters as well, for Kelli [Williams, who plays Margaret Reed] and Karan [Oberoi, who plays Dhan Rana] and Gabrielle Walsh [who plays Lacey, another young woman Evans/Sir already had in captivity when he kidnapped Gabi]. So, it’s an amazing accomplishment, what they’ve done this year.”

For Hampton, “What I love about what NK and Sonay [Hoffman] and all of the writers do is – and we have the luxury, thank you to NBC, of twenty-two episodes – we don’t wrap things up in a little bow in one or two episodes. So, the healing process, as in life, takes time.

“Gabi Mosely is in this dark place and having to deal with the dynamics shifting with [her] entire team and how their relationships have changed. For instance, Kelli is one of my best friends off-screen, and Margaret and Gabi have such a good connection, but there is such a disconnect [once Margaret learns the truth], and it was really hard. Some episodes, I was like, ‘How long is this going to last, where I cannot hug Margaret?’

“And that’s the beautiful journey of this season. I’m really excited for the audience to see and to experience going through the process with these characters. So, it’s been a different journey for me as an actor to play, because Gabi [has been] always in control and people are looking up to her. In this season, for the first chapter, everyone’s really pissed at her and disappointed and sad.”

FOUND – Season 1 Key Art | ©2024 NBCUniversal

“Not me,” Gosselaar offers in mock-solidarity. “I’m on your side.”

In reality, Gosselaar is a great admirer of Hampton’s performance. “I say that Shanola is like a light switch. It goes from Shanola to Gabi, and it’s just a light switch. [She is] so talented that she can do that. I’ve never seen an actor do what she does.”

He continues, “I have a little bit of a different process where it takes a while for me to get the fabric of Sir onto me, and then, it takes a while to wash that fabric off. If I was able to do what she does, it might be a little easier for me. But every actor is different.”

For Hampton’s part, “Please don’t tell him I said this,” she begins, with Gosselaar right next to her, “but one of the highlights of this show is being in scenes with Mark-Paul. I would never want to do it without him.”

Because their characters spend much of Season 2 apart, Hampton explains, “We did not have those days together. It was very hard. He is my place of release, and creatively, there’s a release that happens in those scenes as well as a personal [release].”

However, Hampton posits that even if Sir is not physically in a scene, “he’s always present. And only Mark-Paul, in the way that he is able to deliver Sir, can make you feel that presence, even when he’s not present. So, you get this sense of him in every single scene, even as we’re trying to solve these other cases. He’s always there haunting you.

“So, those moments that the characters are in the same room are very earned, and very much have you [wondering], ‘Oh, what’s going to happen now?’”

Hampton describes a typical scene with Gosselaar. “I come in. I sing. I dance. I jump on him [with a hug]. Everybody goes, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ Then they say, ‘Action,’ and then I hate him. Then they say, ‘Cut,’ and then I jump on him again. It’s simple. Two takes and we’re out of there. It’s quite fun. It’s really not difficult for me to turn it on and turn it off as Gabi Mosely.”

Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Shanola Hampton, Kelli Williams at the FOUND Press Tour, July 2024 | ©2024 NBCUniversal/JSquared Photography

This is because, Hampton elaborates, “I understand her. So, when they say, ‘Action,’ I know where she is at all times. By nature, I’m an empath. So, I feel people’s emotions.

“I know that when I do this kind of work, it is not healthy. I love my life. I love being a mom, and I love being a wife. So, I don’t need to bring Gabi Mosely home in any capacity, or [when not doing a scene] on that set. It’s already dark enough with the story.

“So, I conditioned myself a long time ago to be very clear on where my character is at all times, and also to know where I am in my life. That’s why the switch can go on and off.”

Asked to share what it means to Hampton as a Black woman to be on a series created and run by a fellow Black woman, she replies, “That’s heavy, because when I first met NK, besides the physical aspect of how we are aligned, one of the things that I loved about her is, she spoke my language with love. So, we see human first. That was one of the things that I was connected to. I was afforded the opportunity to have options on being successful. So it was, who did I want to partner with?

“Immediately on the Zoom call, when I was meeting about directing for her on another show, it wasn’t even about the acting. The one thing that I knew is that this was a woman that I wanted to partner with, not only being a woman of color, but she’s so brilliant and leads with love.

“So, to have a show like this, where someone asks how we [feel about] our subject matter, what we’re dealing with. The Sir and Gabi is really the side story of what NK set out to create. So, doing something that means something was important to me, to be working with her in this capacity to see how she has risen to the occasion, over and over again, with all of her projects.”

Additionally, “It means a lot to me to have natural hair on television, and to be free to show styles, and how different dreadlocks can look. It means a lot to me to be a darker-skinned woman who’s on NBC, and to be on a poster, and it carries a lot of weight.

“I feel responsible for a lot of people to make sure that we represent our partnership in a way, that we open the doors for other people who look like us to be able to have these same opportunities. It means so much to have someone who is able to create these beautiful stories and to have the set that we have. It means a lot, and it weighs heavy on what I want to do in the world with a partner like NK.”

Why does Gosselaar think that Evans/Sir is so fixated on Gabi? “He was obsessed when they first connected, when they first met at the school, and just felt that Gabrielle and him were destined to be together. He saw this brilliant young woman, and it struck some chord within him that he hasn’t been able to cut.”

Evans/Sir’s focus is clear for Gosselaar. “It is singular. My intent [as the character] is just to have the connection that I have with Gabrielle. Any sort of connection that I can have with Gabrielle is good enough for Sir, whether that’s in the basement, out in the open, but just to have something that keeps us together, in any capacity. It’s not dysfunctional. Not to Sir. I was very content being in the basement, by the way. I was fine there.”

As for Hampton, does she believe Gabrielle goes back and forth over how she feels about her power over Evans/Sir, or is she unilaterally disgusted by him?

“‘Unilaterally disgusted’ is probably a good description,” Hampton offers, “but she’s also very addicted to their game. How could you not be, after doing it for so long? I think that’s a part of her fiber, whether she wants to admit it or not. She’s as very much a part of this game as he is. But ultimately she wants him to pay for everything that he has done.”

To ask a lighter question, was the enormous beard Gosselaar wore while Evans/Sir was a prisoner in Season 1 his own, or was that provided by the hair and makeup department?

“That was my beard,” Gosselaar confirms. “I’m sure my wife would really like it to have escaped as well, but it’s here for the foreseeable future.”

“You would have liked to escape that beard,” Hampton observes. “Everyone wants to see that.”

The beard is at least much more trimmed in Season 2. “It is,” Gosselaar agrees. “And you’ll know why as the season goes on.”

What do Hampton and Gosselaar both most want people to know about FOUND Season 2?

“That it’s satisfying,” Hampton says. She adds that, as an actor, “You have an obligation to promote your show. Sometimes, and this is one of those times, you get to promote something you believe in, and you know it’s going to satisfy the audience. This is one of those times. Season 2 delivers.”

“Yeah,” Gosselaar opines. “I feel that we’re starting to find our footing, and I think we’re expanding from there and coming into our own, and,” he turns to Hampton, “did you say ‘satisfying’? I really feel that’s a good word. It’s satisfying. We’re really trying to satisfy our audience, who gave us their time last season, and we deliver on some questions that they have.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Actors Shanola Hampton and Mark-Paul Gosselaar discuss Season 2 of FOUNDs

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